Government Considering Developing Indian OS for Mobiles: Union Minister

The government is considering developing an operating system as part of its efforts to push the design and innovation ecosystem in the electronics and IT sector, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that no funds have been allocated by the government to develop an Indian mobile operating system yet.

Operating systems play a key role in weaving together applications in a computer or mobile device with hardware. At present the market is dominated by Google's Android or Apple's iOS operating system in the mobile devices segment and Microsoft Windows in the personal computer segment.

“The government is considering development of the Operating System, as part of the government's efforts to create a vibrant design and innovation ecosystem in Electronics and Information Technology,” Chandrasekhar said.

In response to a question asked by Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram whether the OS will be available only in India, Chandrasekhar said there is no policy in the government that restricts the export and use of Indian software products outside India.

The minister in January had said that the government was planning to come up with a policy that will facilitate an ecosystem for the industry to create an indigenous operating system as an alternative to Google's Android and Apple's iOS.